Staying Strong
by Inkstar Studio
Summary: Kaitlin Joanes is a Captain of the Earth's forces that are fighting against Fuse, who hates Dexter.As we follow Kaitlin in the struggle of war, we learn just how much strength pulls us through,& how much we need each other to find our way out of the dark.


Staying Strong: Chapter 1- Arguments

By Inkstar Studio

_Disclaimer:_ All characters and Fusionfall concept belongs to Cartoon Network. Any OCs from ADITM belong to Cecilia Cournette. Any other familiar concepts that are used in this Fanfic belong to their respective Authors. (This disclaimer goes for all chapters.)

* * *

The war against an otherworldly evil has began to swallow our home. Many of it's inhabitants have fought for their lives to keep the Earth from dying at the hands of a creature of such destructive ideals constantly. We must stand before our enemies with courage, faith, and hope, or we will fall. But strength gives us the will to win over hardships such as this war. Strength gives us the choice of protecting those we hold dear, and the choice of fighting what we fear most. May your fears be a miniscule insect or even facing yourself, strength gives you the ability to pull through it.

Everyone has strength, you just have to believe it's there.

* * *

Dexter was, as most people probably would have hated to admit, a genius. Which was true in all aspects, but one. This one certain aspect just so happened to be a young female captain that went by the name of Kaitlin Joanes. Kaitlin, unlike everyone else around her, thought the exact opposite of Dexter. Every time she saw him--which much to her discomfort, was a daily requirement-- and looked into his eyes through those thick goggles, she saw her own interpretation of the boy.

The same Dexter that everyone else saw was apparently something she would have thought to be another person, because to her, Dexter was indeed smart, but extremely stupid at the same time. To her, he was also pushy, arrogant, and devoid of almost all emotion. She already knew that he was the founder of DexLab Corporation, the Ammunition Manager of the Earth's side of the war, _and_ was in fact in a higher authority than she was, but the _other_ facts of one, he was a kid, and two, he was actually younger than her, that made her somewhat annoyed at the idea of having him as one of the leaders in the fight against Fuse.

But priorities were priorities and orders were orders, so that usually summed it up for her. Even if the priorities were set by a young boy genius, even if the orders were given to her by a certain annoying, abnormally short, inexplicably Russian accented, red-headed geek, they were what they were, no more, no less. Except today.

Kaitlin was well on her way to Mandy's office after a long day trying to teach the new recruits how not to shoot their eyes out with guns that had ketchup for ammo and killing off Spawns for cowardly rookies when she should have been filing in a report for Edd. This was a relief for her of course, mostly so she could clear her mind of anything else for whatever Mandy needed from her. Whenever Mandy asked her for something, it always either had to do with a league of filing cabinets gone wild, or going to aide others on the battlefield who were injured, or something like that that would take the top workers to do. Of course, she was one of those top workers.

Kaitlin knocked on the door of Mandy's office. She heard her voice say, "come in" solidly, in a deadpan voice, so she went in and closed the door behind her. There at the desk in front of Kaitlin was a young lady with gray orbs, staring a hole through her head, a small frown on her face as always.

"You paged me Mandy?" said Kaitlin.

"Yes. Dexter asked me to assign you to something." said Mandy, sliding a manila folder across the desk towards her. "Not that I care, but I don't think you'll like it."

Kaitlin looked at her plainly, and then to the folder. _Of course I wouldn't like it,_ she thought, that guy _assigned it._ She picked it up anyway and skimmed through the folder. It was a "group mission..._blah, blah, blah_...to the Goat's Junkyard to..._yeah, whatever_...this mission will be done by one captain and three subordinates...Captain Kaitlin Joanes, and subordinates..." She stopped. By the time she read the subordinates' names, her face turned red with anger. She tried rereading the mission information again, but that did nothing but peak her frustration.

"...Mandy, Where exactly is Dexter now?"

"He should be coming back to his research in Laboratory 639 from his break session."

"Have the passwords been updated?"

"Yes, the new password should be the formula for the Hypothenuse."

"Right, thanks Mandy." Kaitlin silently stuffed the folder inside her shoulder bag and left Mandy's office with a bang of the door.

Dexter was inside the Laboratory testing some of the samples of skin from Fusion Buttercup that a lieutenant had retrieved from Downtown for any biological phenomena. If there were signs of inhuman abilities, other than the obvious, than they would have a chance to counter it. This would be some of the most vital information that they would get for weeks, because there was still very little known about Fuse's minions, and especially his Fusion Copies of him and the others.

He carefully put samples in several test tubes and went to find some of the necessary chemicals for his biological research. He would have asked for Computress to retrieve some for him, but she was still tending to assigning missions for the Intel squad. He picked out a few containers from a low cabinet and set them with the test tubes. He got the ladder to get the rest from the top shelf. When he stepped up to where he needed to be, he picked through and found the remaining chemicals. He stepped back down from the ladder and started to walk back to the test tubes when suddenly, the double doors to the laboratory were busted open. This startled him and caused him to trip on the corner of the ladder and fall forward.

As the chemicals slipped from his hands and crashed to the floor, the stench of rotten fruit rising and a familiar voice filled the room. "You stupid, idiotic, red-headed moron! Where the heck are you?! I am going to break your neck the second I get a hold of you! and you know what, I--oh god, what is that smell?"

It was Kaitlin. As far as Dexter was concerned, Kaitlin was almost as bad as Dee Dee, perhaps even worse. He was still on the floor, not responding to anything she said. For some inexplicable reason, ever since the "that" day, she had hated him ever since. He wasn't sure what exactly happened to cause her to want to kill him so much, but he knew all too well that if she caught him in the temper she was in now, it was going to be a bad day. A _really_ bad day.

He could hear Kaitlin's footsteps go from the double doors to where he had put the chemicals and the test tubes. He slowly crawled behind a different lab table that was adjacent to where Kaitlin was. After that, he sat still against the table, trying to hear her footsteps, but there were no more. He looked up, but there was no Kaitlin. He looked to left, but she wasn't there either. And then, hesitantly, he looked to his right. Nothing. He breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

"There you are!" said Kaitlin. Dexter gasped, clenching his lab coat. "You forgot to look in front of you, idiot. You probably wouldn't last three minutes in a stealth mission. Remember, you have to look up, down, right, left, front and back. And if you're feeling paranoid, you can look in the Northeast, Northwest, and that stuff."

Dexter glared at her. She was right. He hadn't seen her in front of him, arms crossed on top of another lab table. But that wasn't the point. If she acted as if she was furious like that all the time, he wouldn't be able to get a moment of peace.

"What can I help you with, Captain?" he growled.

As soon as he asked, she shoved a manila folder in his face. "Change the subordinates assigned to the group mission to Goat's Junkyard."

"What?"

"You heard me, you moron. Change the subordinates, or I am not accepting this mission."

He pushed the folder away from his face. "I'm afraid I cannot do that now Captain. It's too late to reassign subordinates. And besides, you said it yourself that they would able to handle tough missions, not to mention you're the only Captain who can do this mission."

"Keyword is 'would' be able to handle tough missions." she said. "They won't last long in such an uncontrolled area, Dexter! You don't understand how dangerous it is in that junkyard. And the place is practically covered with Fusion Matter, I couldn't risk having any three of them getting infected there, Dexter. I don't know if your brain does anything in there, but it better make up its mind before I pound some sense into it."

"An order is an order Captain. You either follow those orders or you can give up your rank forever. I will not allow any insubordination to befall our troops." said Dexter. He saw Kaitlin, as she stood there, gritting her teeth. He knew she could say nothing then. How could she? She knew that the war needed her, and she needed the war. It was like a drug. This war was fueling her life and her perseverance to move on. It was as if she couldn't quit, but the true fact was that she mustn't quit. Quitting meant that the Earth would lose one soldier in the fight, and if anything, could cause a chain reaction. And before you knew it even happened, they would lose the war, and more importantly, their world. Even though resigning was a simple action, there was a possibility that it could be the biggest mistake she could make.

She stood there, staring at him silently. After a couple of minutes, she walked away to the double doors. "I'll be going now. You better be happy. And get rid of that smell will you? It's horrible." she said, not looking at him. After that, the double doors opened and she left.


End file.
